The species has not been assigned a conservation status by the IUCN, but may be threatened by high levels of human activity near its habitat caused by pilgrims to the Sabarimala Temple, which is close to the locality where it was discovered.

Nyctibatrachus sabarimalai was described in 2017 by the herpetologist Sonali Garg and her colleagues based on an adult male specimen collected from the Periyar Tiger Reserve in the state of Kerala.

The species is named after the Hindu pilgrimage site of Sabarimala, which is located close to the locality where the type specimens were collected.

[1] N. sabarimalai can be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of its small snout–vent length; the head being longer than it is wide; the absence of webbed feet; weakly developed glandular folds on the upper sides, separated by scattered granular projections; the presence of the dorso-terminal groove (groove on the upper side of the tip of the digit) on the third finger and fourth toe; the discs on the third finger and fourth toe being slightly sider than the finger and toe, respectively; a single tubercle on the palm; and the thigh, lower leg, and foot being around the same length.

[1] N. sabarimalai is endemic to the Western Ghats of India, where it is known only from the Periyar Tiger Reserve, south of the Palakkad Gap in Kerala.

All known specimens of the frog have been collected from leaf litter in a shallow forest stream or under the grasses on wet rocky terrain, at an elevation of 210 m (690 ft).

[1] The species has not yet been assessed by the IUCN,[7] although it may be threatened from the high levels of human activity near its habitat caused by pilgrims to the Sabarimala Temple.